In addition to the announcement today by the federal government that will soon require that all public servants be vaccinated, Transport Minister Omar Alghabra also announced that a similar mandate will be extended to “certain travellers.” With no exact date announced when this will be effective, all commercial air travellers and passengers on interprovincial trains and large marine vessels with overnight accommodations (such as cruise ships) will have to be vaccinated. Alghabra went on to say that accommodations will be made for “those few who are unable to be vaccinated,” such as testing and screening.
As mentioned above, while no exact date has been set yet for this policy, it is very likely that this will happen in the fall and latest by end of October.
This follows on the heels of the earlier announcement where the feds have already allowed fully vaccinated US citizens to enter Canada for non-essential reason and soon, from September 7, fully vaccinated international travellers will be able to enter Canada.
Earlier, on August 11, Ottawa announced that a vaccine passport system will be introduced soon. This will gather vaccination details from the provinces and certify the status of Canadians who want to travel abroad. Immigration Minister Marco Mendicino said the digital pass will include data on the type of vaccine received and the dates and location they were given. Here too, we dont have a definite rollout date yet, but indications were that this too will be in the fall.
These steps should hopefully make travelling less un-predictable with no sudden changes in rules causing travellers to be stranded and at the same time open up travel and tourism.
Written by Dominic Fernandes aka CanadaPointsGuy.
Image Photo by Erik Odiin on Unsplash